Daily Archives: 28 March 2007

G.N. MOHAN forwards an advertisement for Australia Post, reproduced courtesy http://kuteev.livejournal.com that harks back to a not-so-long-ago past and exhorts people to put pen to paper rather than mouse to pad.

Owners, publishers, editors, journalists everywhere are wondering how long newspapers will survive in the digital age. But is letter writing as an art form any far behind? Or, like newspaper-reading, will it eventually become the hobby of a privileged few? A few privileged to have the time, the patience, and the drive, desire and dedication to walk up to the post office.

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This is the time of the year when journalism students start packing up, start interning, start applying for jobs, and start praying. In the days and weeks to come, they will meet an unknown, unfathomable monster called “HR”. What do employers look for from fresh recruits?

A neat CV, nice references, good clippings will help, of course. Paul Conley says he looks for these three traits. (Indian media HR is not so nuanced or advanced, but any student journalist who has these should be surprised if she doesn’t get a leg up the media ladder quickly.)

1)Youth itself: Young people who send messages via PDA, have a Facebook account, MySpace page, and have blogs about local bands, and know how to use deli.cio.us bookmarks.

2)Self-taught expertise: “I’m thrilled by someone who taught himself Dreamweaver, whereas I’m not so impressed by someone who took a course in PhotoShop.”

3)Entrepreneurial spirit: Someone who hired me was surprised… “I had helped publish a fanzine about music in New York, and had been paid $15 a week while a student to type up sport scores from my school and walk them over to a local paper.”